It's Okay to Be Different!

There are a lot of stereotypes about the Korean education system. Before I came to the country, I worried about the alleged insistence on rote memorization, teacher-centered instruction, harsh disciplinary methods and how these practices would converge with my own. Since I have arrived at my school, however, I've been amazed at the variety of progressive methods implemented. My school has an emphasis on collaboration and a focus on the "STEAM" subjects (Korea's version of STEM with art included!). Students have a lot of room to talk and a fair amount of opportunities to express themselves.

So while I've been pleasantly surprised for the most part, one infamous cultural difference has stood out to me so far. Korea, with deep roots in Confucianism, is a collectivist society. The concept of an individual is a foreign one and working cohesively within your community is much more important than self-fulfillment.

There are some really beautiful aspects of that mindset such as a focus on "nunchi" or the ability to read social context so as to not make anyone feel uncomfortable, and very close and caring relationships, to name a few. However, one issue that seems to arise from collective thinking is a fear of difference. When everyone is working to fit together, different opinions, values, or forms of self-expression are threatening. This is especially troublesome when applied to growing kids whose sense of self is fragile and whose character is vulnerable. Many students who vary from the norm (and really, who doesn't?) can feel excluded, unappreciated, or worse. In fact, Korea has the highest teen suicide rate in the world. 

In an effort to show students that even within their close-knit community, they are free to be themselves, the theme of my after-school class this year is going to be "It's Okay to Be Different!" I had my students read Todd Parr's book by the same name as an introduction to the idea. We then reviewed the vocabulary "same" and "different" and played some community-building activities like "Just Like Me" where students could recognize how their likes and dislikes, interests and talents, were similar and different from one another.

The next class, we made our own class book. I showed them an example of an "It's Okay to Be Different" page. Mine was "It's Okay to have a nose ring" :-) and then they got to work on their own. I was amazed with what they came up with- one student with a large red birthmark on her face wrote "It's okay to have a mark on your face" and proudly showed the group. The next class, we recorded ourselves reading our pages for speaking practice and made the video below. 

We even e-mailed the author Todd Parr and he responded saying he loved our movie! The students were so proud.

As a closing activity, I had students tell a fact about themselves according to the colors of Korean M and Ms. We all enjoyed learning about each other more. Then I asked them how the candy looked on the outside- different- and how it looked on the inside- the same! We're all the same and we're all different! 

Overall, I'm really proud of this start to the school year and can't wait to build upon this lesson! 

All Set! Back to School Basics

Setting up my classroom in Korea, I tried to anticipate a lot of my students' needs so that we could start the year strong. Here are some pieces I made sure to include: 

1. Class Rules 

We brainstormed ideas together and then consolidated them into the following four rules. As a teacher who sees the whole school, making collective class rules can seem intimidating, but I found that some guiding questions allowed me to take students' ideas into account while still ultimately creating only one set of rules for the English classroom. The first few weeks, we have been reading the rules as each class begins. 

2. Habits of Discussion

 Before school started, I tried to think of reasonable expectations for habits of discussion in the classroom. I wanted to elevate my students' language skills while still meeting them at their current ability. I decided on "silent signals" to increase class participation,  a phrase of the week for conversational practice, and conversation skills to work on throughout the year. I plan on teaching signals for each of the conversation skills so that students can remind each other to make eye contact or speak loudly. 

3. Behavioral Supports: 

I have been working on setting expectations consistently to eliminate conflict in the classroom. I made a "noise-o-meter" to manage student volume during activities, and chose "give me 5" as my attention-getter this year because it gives students some time to finish their work or conversation before pausing and also makes expectations for listening very clear. 

4. Community-building decorations!

 I found these amazing diversity posters buried in a closer in the classroom when I arrived (thanks Elaine or Micia?) and immediately put them up. If anything, I think that adding your own decorations to the classroom makes you feel more comfortable as the educator. Then, during the first week, I had all of my club class students make puzzle pieces with pictures and phrases that described them and then we assembled them on the wall. (They made it into a heart on their own!) The theme was "We all fit together perfectly" and though I think the language was lost on them I hope the sentiment wasn't. This week I also added little superheroes with "I can..." statements that the first graders made this week. I hope they feel proud when they see them and a little more invested in the space. 

5. Kiddos! 

The classroom isn't really complete till they get in and messy it up! Happy to have these guys! 

 

Culturally Responsive Teaching (In Korea!)

If you are an American educator, you've probably heard mention of "Culturally Responsive Teaching." When training with Teach For America, the concept a culturally responsive classroom, one in which the teacher seeks to understand her students' cultural context and tailor your teaching to fit the diverse strengths of your student body, was an essential tenet of effective teaching.

I fully agree with these precepts, but when came to my day to day teaching in Bushwick, Brooklyn, my practice sometimes fell short. Though we often celebrated my students' cultures, it was a constant challenge to both see how my students' unique backgrounds sculpted them as learners and identify how their particular strengths played out in the classroom. 

Coming to Korea, I again had those buzzwords of Culturally Responsive Teaching at the forefront of my brain. If responsive teaching was difficult in the US, I wondered, how much more challenging might it be in Korea, where the culture and context are foreign to me in all senses of the word?

What I've found is that the complete foreignness of the school, the students, and even the language they speak, has actually given me a really good insight into how culture affects learning and what cultural responsiveness can feel like in the classroom. Here's what I've found out:

1. Cultural Responsiveness has nothing to do with your students and everything to do with you.

When you've got a clear sense of where YOU are coming from, you can more accurately see your students' cultures and adjust accordingly. The first thoughts that crossed my mind when  I started teaching in Korea were comparative. The classrooms here are louder than mine were, the students here call out and students in my class raised their hands, kids have breaks between periods here and did not have them in my school. When you find yourself comparing your values and your students ' while teaching,  take the time to recognize your cultural bias. What value judgments are you putting on raising your hand or walking in straight lines.

2. Cultural responsiveness means reflecting before reacting.

Stopping to understand your own cultural influences is the first step in being a reflective teacher. Initially, when I saw that students in Korea had slightly different attitudes- more playful, light-hearted, boisterous in class- I thought I had troublemakers on my hands. I rushed to devise stronger management systems, put on my stern teacher face, and squash out all of those "problem behaviors." What I got in return was a group of silent, disinterested, and slightly annoyed students. When I took the time to reflect, I saw that I didn't have a class of trouble makers, but a group of kids with personality, used to a more playful learning environment.

3.Cultural responsiveness is messy. It involves adapting, adjusting, re-planning and redoing.

After reflection comes adaptation. Be OK with the messiness of culturally responsive teaching. If something's broken, no problem, just fix it. In my classroom, I shifted the tone from that of a disciplinarian (a role I was taught to play frequently back in the States) to one as a moderator. I gave my students  more turn and talks, allowed them to practice with partners before having to speak to the whole class, gave them mingling exercises so they could chat with friends (in English!). And slowly, I am seeing the class come to life in a way that suits both me and my students.

4. Cultural responsive teaching begins outside of the classroom.

Students are so much more than students- take the time to understand their lives beyond school walls. This statement is so intuitive, but perhaps easier said than done. To truly understand your students' cultures, you need to witness it outside the classroom. Attend a sporting event, a festival, ask your students about the movies they watch and games they play. It may seem like "extra work" but I think it is not only beneficial to your classroom but requisite for creating a strong, responsive community.  Now excuse me, while I ask my host brother if I can join in on the cartoon marathon- it's all in the name of good teaching!